Wow… these brownies. Well, I’m biased because I just love the combo chocolate/coffee. And I’m not even a coffee drinker! Anyway, they are totally delicious! And I also have a special place in my heart for swiss meringue buttercream. I hope you enjoy them! I think the photos turned out great too!

Preheat oven to 325° F. Butter and line a 8×8-inch baking tin with parchment paper, leaving a 1-inch overhang on the two longer sides.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water at low heat until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar.

Add the eggs, one at-a-time, stirring until smooth after each addition.

Whisk in the espresso powder, vanilla and salt.

Sift flour over the chocolate mixture and stir gently to blend well.

Add the walnuts and chopped chocolate.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking tin.

Bake brownies until puffed and dry-looking and until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely in the tin.

Using the paper overhang, carefully lift the brownies out of the pan. Cut in squares.

For the SMB

In a small bowl, mix the espresso powder with the boiling water. Reserve.

Make sure there is no grease in the bowl and on the utensils you’ll be using for the buttercream.

Add egg whites and sugar to a heatproof bowl (or bowl of standmixer) set over a saucepan of simmering water at low heat, whisking constantly until temperature reaches 160°F.

Whisk with a stand mixer until the meringue is thick and glossy and the bowl doesn’t feel warm to the touch.

With mixer on low speed, add the butter a cube at a time. Mix until it has a silky texture. If it looks curdles, continue beating until smooth. You can’t overbeat the buttercream.

Add vanilla, salt and espresso, beat until combined.

Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag fit with the tip of your choice (I used the 1M). Pipe a small amount of buttercream on top of each brownie square. Add shredded chocolate and a coffee bean if desired.

Are you skeptical about adding vegetables to your desserts? I must admit for zucchini and avocado, I’m not. And I’m the first to be suspicious about adding strange ingredients to my meals. Maybe it’s because I love zucchini and avocado and can see there place in a dessert. Moreover, I had already tasted zucchini chocolate cupcakes which were totally delicious. My boyfriend hadn’t and he was doubting my mental health (or that I had another mental illness he didn’t already know about!) when I told him that I was going to do zucchini brownies. I’m joking, but I saw the doubt in his eyes in addition to his comments like “Yuck”, “Gross”, that he made “as jokes” ;). Well the brownies turned out so very delicious. The skeptical man was convinced, so will you! There texture was more like a boxed cake than a brownies though, but so very yummy anyway! And here is the Turtle twist I gave them!

Challenge : Ruth from Makey-Cakey was our March 2013 Daring Bakers’ challenge host. She encouraged us all to get experimental in the kitchen and sneak some hidden veggies into our baking, with surprising and delicious results!

Meanwhile, in large microwave safe bowl, microwave caramels and whipping cream uncovered on High 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until smooth.

Pour caramel over partially baked brownie (wait until the brownies are quite set, longer than 15 minutes if you have to, else they will do like mine : caramel and brownies merged so I don’t have a layer of caramel) spread to edges. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the pecans. Drop remaining brownie batter by small spoonfuls onto caramel layer. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup chocolate chips and remaining 1/2 cup pecans.

I have another Cookie and Cream (Oreos) recipe for you. As I said a few times already, I’m not a big fan of cheesecake. You’ll see them eventually on my blog because my man likes them, but me, I’ll politely decline a cheesecake offer! But brownies with cheesecakes aren’t in the same category! Oh no, first it’s brownies people, who doesn’t love them (ok I’m sure there’s some people out there who doesn’t like brownies, I love you guys anyway)? Second, there is not as much cheese as there is brownie so it tends to taste less like cheese. Finally, well it’s just yummy like the Marbled Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownies I made a while back and these super extra yummy Cookie and Cream Cheesecake Brownies.

Preheat oven to 350° F. Butter and line a 11 x 7 x 2-inch baking tin with parchment paper, leaving a 1-inch overhang on the two longer sides.

Mix the flour and the salt in a small bowl.

Melt the bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water at low heat, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Remove from heat and allow the chocolate mixture to cool to room temperature, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar and 2 teaspoon of vanilla until combined.

Add sugar to the cooled chocolate mixture and stir until combined well.

Add the eggs, one at-a-time, stirring until smooth after each addition. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Gently fold the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture.

Pour half the batter into the prepared baking tin and smooth the batter to the edges with an offset spatula. Add the layer of cheese mixture. Add the remaining brownie batter. Top with chopped Oreos.

Bake until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 35 minutes.

Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely in the tin.

Run a thin knife around the edges of the pan. Using the paper overhang, carefully lift the brownies out of the pan. Cut in squares.

Ok so these might be the best brownies you’ve ever had in your life. In fact, these are the best homemade brownies I tasted so far. Normally I find that homemade brownies aren’t as good as the box ones: mostly too dry. Like most of you I guess, I like my brownies fudgy!

They don’t have an overwhelming taste of malted milk so if you like malted milk a lot, you should add more than indicated. Also, you should totally add some walnuts if you like them in brownies! I didn’t have any but it would have been delicious!

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Line a 13×9-inch baking pan with parchment paper.
3. In a small saucepan, combine butter and chocolate.
4. Melt over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until chocolate is melted and smooth. Set aside to cool.
5. In a large bowl, beat sugars, malted milk powder, and eggs at medium speed with a mixer until fluffy. Gradually add flour and salt to sugar mixture, beating until combined.
6. Add melted butter mixture, beating until combined, being careful not to over beat.
7. Spoon batter into prepared pan, and bake 25 to 30 minutes or until brownies are set in center. Let cool completely.
8. Spread Chocolate Malt Frosting over cooled brownies.

1. In a medium saucepan, combine butter and chocolate.
2. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is melted and smooth.
3. Remove from heat, and whisk in sugar until combined. Add the malted milk powder.
4. Gradually whisk in milk until frosting is able to be spread.

I’m so glad to be back! I finished the biggest part of my “doctoral research project” (This is the presentation of your research for approval by a committee; what I had to deliver). I’ll do the other part soon enough, but as a reward I did a dessert and this post 😀

So about the dessert, strangely enough I don’t drink coffee but love, love, love, everything with coffee in it, especially when it’s chocolaty! So I really had to try these espresso brownies!

The coffee and the cocoa I used are from Dominican Republic! It does sent me back there when I eat/smell them 😉

Have a good day 😀

P.S. Have you heard about what’s going on in Quebec right now? The strike against the tuitions hikes turned into a social crisis? Yep that’s us! I know there are some demonstrations around the world in support of the students so you might have heard about it. Some things that happened are really upsetting. If you want a Quebecer’s view on the crisis, you can ask me 😉

Meanwhile, for the frosting, place powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the 1/4 cup butter, 2 tablespoons boiling water, espresso and the 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Beat for 1 minute on medium speed. Pipe a little frosting on each brownie.

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day! My boyfriend and I went to see the movie The Vow which is quite good. I won’t give you any spoilers or anything but it was also interesting for me because the girl had a traumatic brain injury, my thesis interest 😉 Well, I’m not that geek about my doctorate, I assure you I don’t run to every movie involving psychology and neuropsychology, but it’s always interesting to see how they treat the subject!

Here is a quick dessert you can make ahead of time for your guests. I wanted to do this because it’s one of the desserts I can’t resist when going to a restaurant. If it’s in the desserts menu, it’s unlikely that I will take something else (except for a real sundae!).

First you do your favorite brownies recipe. If you want to make cut-outs like I did, you will have to use a 9 x 13 pan and line it with parchment paper. Your recipe will probably ask that you use a square pan so just bake the brownies at 325°F and reduce the baking time. Once brownies are cool, cut out as many shapes as you can.

I did try a new recipe, but it didn’t turn out well (very sticky) so I won’t propose you do it 😉 Then you take your favorite ice cream. I took strawberries because of V-Day! You can prepare the ice cream scoops in advance, use your cupcake pan to put each scoops and put in the freezer until needed.

Combine all ingredients except vanilla extract in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir slowly with a whisk to combine, allowing all ingredients to melt and incorporate.

Increase the heat to medium and allow the mixture to come to a simmer while stirring frequently. Simmer for 2-3 minutes and then remove from heat. Let stand for a few minutes and then stir in vanilla extract.

Pour into a glass jar or container and store in refrigerator.

The sauce will look quite thin when you first pour it into the jar, but it will thicken after it cools in the fridge. Warm it before serving.

I made these marbled peanut butter cheesecake brownies a while ago and they were very good! They were not too sweet. They didn’t even taste like cheese for those who don’t like cheesecakes. I’m ashamed to admit that I’m one of them, I’m so sad about that because some cheesecake recipes looks absolutely amazing. I have to work on this taste!

I don’t know if you are like me, but when I see a recipe I want to make, I am a little obsessed until I do it. I won’t be able to do another recipe because I can’t stop thinking about this one in particular. These brownies were one of them. I wasn’t disappointed at all!

Grease a 8 inch baking pan, then line with parchment, leaving an overhang on 2 sides. Grease the parchment.

Beat the sugar and cream cheese on medium speed until combined. Add the peanut butter to the bowl and beat until smooth. Mix in the egg yolk and milk until incorporated; set aside.

Combine the cocoa powder, flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.

In another bowl, whisk together the sugar and melted butter. Whisk in the eggs and the vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and use a rubber spatula to mix until combined.

Smooth 2/3 of the brownie batter in the bottom of the baking pan. Spread the cheesecake batter on top and smooth to form an even layer. Add the remaining brownie batter by spoonfuls on top of the cheesecake and then use a knife to swirl the two together. You can add chocolate chips or reese peanut butter chips on top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Once the brownies have cooled, use the parchment sling to lift them out of the pan and then cut them into squares.